Vance (company)

The Vance company was a computer company in Gotham City. It was a success for many years under the leadership of its founder, Robert Vance, a pioneer in digital technology.

History

Toward the end of his life, Vance developed an incurable brain disorder. Realizing his time was running out, in his last days, he turned his efforts toward creating a computer program that would effectively allow him to run his company from beyond the grave. He was successful, and the program was activated on the day of his death, only to be shut off by the company's new leadership after less than a minute — Vance's successors preferred to run things without his input.

While Vance's program lay dormant, the company continued business for nearly thirty-five years, when Robert Vance's grandson, Bobby Vance, stepped forward. With the recent death of his own father, he was the only remaining heir to the Vance name. Unsure of his own leadership abilities, he reactivated his grandfather's program to help him run the company. Robert, however, had different ideas. He responded that his initial claims in creating the program had been a "pose", to buy time for his real plans, to which end he convinced Bobby to put him online.

Unfortunately, Vance's intentions were more malevolent than he had let on. He caused havoc throughout Gotham, damaging the power grid and ultimately drawing out Batman, at which point he was able to upload himself to the Batsuit. From there, he planned to regain access to his laboratory and overwrite himself onto his grandson's mind, returning to the physical world, most likely to resume control of his company. In the end, he was stopped, and the program was finally deleted.

After this ordeal, Bobby Vance sold his family's company to a group of outside investors. When asked how his grandfather would have responded to the sale, he said that he believed it was for the best, and just wanted his grandfather to rest in peace.[1]